Railroad-tie tamper



R. R.. HUNTER. RAILROAD TIE TAMPER. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 1B, 1920.

1,37 1,68 1 Patented Marrl, 1921.

l INVLWToI-l Ray H Hunter RAY R. HUNTER, F TERMINAL ISLAND, CALIFORNIA.

RAILROAD-'rin TAMPER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented ll'lar. 15, 1921.

Application filed September 18, 1920. Serial No. 411,218.

To all 'whom t may concern:

ABe it known that I, RAY R. HUNTER, a citizen or the United States, residing at Terminal Island, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented `new and useful Improvements in Railroad-Tie rlainpers et which Jhe following is a specitication.

It is the object of this invention to provide a tool for tamping ballast beneath railroad ties and the like, and more particularly it is the object of the invention to provide a tool which may be removably supported upon the railroad tie, with a pivoted operating lever having an adjustable tamper secured to the same,'i`or1ning a part of the tamping device.

i The invention will be readily understood from the tollowing description of the accompan Ying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view showing the tamping device in operative position upon a railroad tie.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged perspective view or" the tamper head.

In the drawings a railroad tie shown at 1 is resting upon ballast 2 which is to be tamped beneath the tie.

The improved tamping device comprises a supporting bracket removably mounted VuJon the tie an o Jeratino lever ivoted to the supporting bracket, and a tamper adjustably mounted with relation to the operating lever so that by manually swinging the operating lever back and forth upon its pivot, the head of the tamper will engage the ballast so as to'tamp the same beneath the tie.

The supporting bracket is shown as a bar 3 having a hook 4 at one end thereof and a yoke 5 at the opposite end of the same. The arms of this yoke are provided with alined openings 6 arranged to receive a bearing pin 7, and the ends of said arm, preferably, terminate in outwardly bent foot rests 8. A prong 9 depends from arm 3 at the yoke end of the same, said prong being, preferably, formed by extending one arm of the yoke downwardly below the bar 3. The other arm of the yoke is formed as an integral part orp arm 3 and the arm forming the prong 9 may be suitably riveted to the bar as shown at 10. j

The hook 4 terminates in a prong 11 reversely bent with relation to bar 3 and eX- tending substantially parallel to the same. rl`he supporting bracket is mounted upon the tie with the prong 11 extending into one side ot" the tie and the bar 3 projecting across the upper face of the tie with' the prong 9 extending into said upper face. rlhe prongs 9-11 thus positively position the supporting arm with relation to the tie, and said prongs may be forced into engagement with the tie by pressure of the toot upon i''oot rests S.

The supporting` bracket, when in operative position, is arranged with the bearing pin received in yoke 5 projecting beyond the side ot the tie, as clearly shown in F ig. 1. The

lever 12 is pivoted upon the pin 'T and, pret erably, includes aV yoke end 13 received between the arms ot yoke 5 and having 'the bearing pin extending through suitable openings 14 in the arms of said yoke. The upper end 15 of the lever iorms an actuating handle by means of which the lever may be swung back and forth provided by pin 7.

The tamper adjustably supported by lever 12 consists of a tamper head 16 tapering downwardly to a point 17 and, preferably, also having its side edges 1S which taper to the point 17, also beveled transversely as shown at 19 in order to form a blade 20 at the point of the tamper head. r shank 21 extends upwardly from the tamper head, said shank being', preferably, curved as clearly shown in Fig. 1 and provided at its upper end with a plurality of spaced openings 22 extending along the shank. This shank is received between the arms of yoke 13, said arms being also provided with a plurality of openings 23 eX- tending along the same. A bolt 24'is adapted t0 be received through alined openings of the yoke arms and through any one of the openings 22 of the shank. By this arrangement the tamper may be adjusted up and down relative tothe lever 12 through the medium oi' openings 23 and is also arranged for curved lateral adjustment relative to the lever through the medium of openings 22.

After the tamper has been positioned with relation to the lever it may be locked against swinging movement upon bolt 24 by means of a second bolt inserted through the next upper alined openings 23 of the lever yoke arms, this bolt being arranged to impinge against the upper surface of the curved Vshank 21 so as to prevent pivotal movementV of the tamper With relation to the lever.

ln opera-tion the supporting bracket hav- Vthe lever in order to adjust the inclination at which the tamper head will engage the ballast to be tamped beneath the tie, the tamper head may be movedback and forth so as to tamp the ballast by swinging lever l2 back and forth lupon its pivot. It will thllS 13e-Seen' that l have provided an extremely efficient tool which may be readily positionedv Withrelation to a tie and which is'V adapted to tamp ballast beneath the tie by engagement of a tamper head with the ballast at any desired angle.

Various changes may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention as claimed.

' y What is claimed is.:

l. The 'combination with a supporting bracket having a laterally projecting foot rest, of a tamping device pivoted to said bracket.

` 4. The combination With a supporting bracket removably mounted upon a supporting element, of a tamping device pivoted to Y the-supporting bracket, which tamping device includes a lever, an arm adjustably connected thereto and a bladecarried by the y lower end of said arm.

5. The combination vWith va supporting bracket having prongsv for removably engaging a supporting element, of a tamping device pivoted to the supporting bracket, which' tamping device includes a lever, an arm adjustably connected Ythereto and a blade carried by the lower end of said arm.

6. Atamping device having a head tapering to a point with the inclined sides of said head forming said taper beveled to form diverging cutting edges.

In testimony whereof IV have signed nl v Y name to this specification.v

RAY R. HUNTER. y 

